Theories of Emotion
What is emotion?
• Emotions are a mix of:
– Physiological activation of
sympathetic nervous system
(heart rate, blood pressure,
breathing, pupil dilation)
and various parts of the
brain (amygdala; frontal
cortex)
– Expressive behaviors
(quickened pace clenched
fists, smile, frown)
– Conscious experience,
including thoughts
/cognitive interpretation
(“are they going to attack
me?”) and subjective
feelings (a sense of fear).
What is emotion?
• Emotions are ADAPTIVE
– Emotions have evolved to help us respond to important situations
(fight or flee) and to convey our intentions to others (threats,
greetings, submission with facial expressions) to others.
• Emotions are different from moods.
– Emotions last a brief amount of time, whereas moods generally last
longer.
– Emotions usually alter a person’s thought process.
• Feel good, do good phenomenon = when we feel happy we are
more willing to help others. EX: Finding money, succeeding on a
challenging task, recalling a happy event made people more
likely to give money, pick up someone’s dropped papers,
volunteer time, etc
• People who are happy perceive the world as being safer, are able
to make decisions easily, are more cooperative, rate job
applicants more favorably, and live healthier, energized, and
more satisfied lives.
What is emotion?
• Over the long ride, our emotional ups and downs tend to balance
– Adaptation-Level Phenomenon = our tendency to form judgments
(of sounds, lights, income, emotions) relative to a neutral/base level
defined by our prior experiences.
– EX: Those who become blind or paralyzed usually recover nearnormal levels of day to day happiness. We overestimate the long
term emotional impact of very bad news and underestimate our
capacity to adapt.
– EX: The effect of dramatically positive events is similarly temporary.
State lottery winners typically find their overall happiness
unchanged. We adapt to this new level of achievement, come to
consider it as normal, and require something even better to give
another surge of happiness.
• Relationship to motivation:
– People are more motivated to perform activities that produce
positive emotions (happiness) rather than negative emotions (anger
or fear).
How many Emotions?
• Robert Plutchik  emotion
wheel with 8 primary
emotions in the inner wheel
and variations of those 8
emotions form the outer
circle
• Paul Ekman  7 basic
emotions
• Carroll Izard  10 emotions
Primary and mixed emotions. In Robert Plutchik’s
model there are eight primary emotions, as listed in the
inner areas. Adjacent emotions may combine to give
the emotions listed around the perimeter. Mixtures
involving more widely separated emotions are also
possible. For example, fear plus anticipation produces
anxiety. (Adapted from Plutchik, 2001.)
Emotional Expression
• Most emotions are present in infancy through facial expressions,
except for contempt, shame, and guilt, Deaf and blind
individuals are still able to express themselves facially.
• Facial expressions for basic emotions, such as happiness, seem to
be similar across cultures; however, people differ in their
intensity of displaying emotions (based on random genetic
variations and learning from culture)
Two Dimensions of Emotions
• Emotions seem to place along two dimensions – 1) pleasant
vs. unpleasant (the emotion’s valence) and 2) low versus
high arousal (the emotion’s strength/activation.)
EX: If your boyfriend or girlfriend
breaks up with you, you experience
some type of emotion, like sadness
(valence). If you loved this person,
you may experience sadness that
is very unpleasant or intense
(strength)
James-Lange Theory
Researchers
William James and Carl Lange
Definition
Emotion is the result of the interpretation of bodily fluctuations
Event /Stimulus Physiological Arousal  Emotion
(Criticism:
-Body’s physical responses are not distinct enough to evoke the
different emotions. EX: Experience racing heart when fearful,
angry, or in love.
-Physiological changes are often too slow to be source of emotion,
which erupt very quickly.)
Example
You’re walking down a dark alley late at night and hear footsteps.
You begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing
deepens. You notice these physiological changes and then
experience fear.
Facial Feedback Hypothesis; Polygraph Detectors; People with
spinal cord injuries at the neck typically experience less emotion.
James-Lange Theory
Ben was almost in a car
accident. Ben’s heart
started racing and
THEN he experienced
fear as a result of his
"I feel afraid
heart beating faster.
because my
heart is racing"
The Effects of Facial Expression
Facial Feedback Hypothesis: If facial expressions
are manipulated, like furrowing brows,
people feel sad while looking at sad pictures.
Attaching two golf tees to the face and making their tips touch causes the
brow to furrow.
Cannon-Bard Theory
Researchers
Walter Cannon and Phillip Bard
Definition
Emotions are the result of the thalamus receiving
sensory info about event/stimulus and relaying the info
simultaneously to the autonomic nervous system and
the cerebral cortex
Physiological Arousal
Event/
Stimulus
Thalamus
(Autonomic Nervous
System)
Emotion (Cerebral Cortex )
Arousal and emotion occur simultaneously
Example
You’re walking down a dark alley late at night and hear
footsteps. You begin to tremble, your heart beats
faster, and your breathing deepens. At the same time
as these physiological changes occur, you also
experience the emotion of fear.
Cannon-Bard Theory
Ben was almost in a car
accident. Ben experienced
fear (cerebral cortex) at the
SAME TIME that his heart
started to race (autonomic
nervous system.)
Two-Factor Theory
(aka Cognitive Arousal Theory or Schachter-Singer Theory)
Researchers
Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer
Definition
Emotion is the result of the interaction of two separate factors:
1. Physiological arousal
2. Cognitive label that explains why there is physiological arousal
Event/Stimulus
Physiological Arousal (ANS)
Emotion
Reasoning (Cognitive Label)
Label our emotions by considering situational cues.
Example
You’re walking down a dark alley late at night and hear footsteps. You
begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing deepens.
Upon noticing this physiological arousal you realize that it comes from
the fact that you are walking down a dark alley by yourself. This
behavior is dangerous and therefore you feel the emotion of fear.
Transferred Excitation: Spill-Over Effect
Two-Factor Theory
Ben was almost in a
car accident. Ben’s
heart starts to race.
Upon noticing this
arousal, he realizes
that it comes from the
fact that he was about
to crash into a car.
This is scary and
therefore he feels the
emotion of fear.
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Transferred Excitation / Spill-Over Effect
•
•
•
Physiological arousal can intensify just about any emotion; an
arousal response to one event spills over into our response to
the next event
– Schachter and Singer gave college men injections of
epinephrine, which made their hearts race, bodies flush,
and increased breathing rate. The experimental group
was told the drug did nothing, while the control group
were told the drug would raise their arousal
• Men were left sitting in waiting groom with another
person who either acted really happy or irritated
• Control group  felt little emotion because they
attributed their arousal to the drug. Experimental
group  the subjects would react by “catching” the
apparent emotion of the person they were with.
• A stirred-up state can be experienced as one
emotion or very different one depending on how
we interpret it and label it. Arousal can intensify any
emotion.
Go to the local amusement park for a first date. Your
increased arousal from the roller coaster ride intensifies your
emotion. You are not just smitten, you are in LOVE! or You
are not just put off, you are DISGUSTED!
Misattribute arousal
Arousal from a soccer match
can fuel anger, which may
lead to rioting.
Cognitive Appraisal Theory
Researchers
Richard Lazarus
Definition
In the absence of physiological arousal, we decide what to feel after
interpreting or explaining what has just happened. Two things are important
in this: whether we interpret the event as good or bad for us, and what we
believe is the cause of the event.
In primary appraisal, we consider how the situation affects our personal wellbeing. In secondary appraisal, we consider how we might cope with the
situation.
Physiological Arousal
Event/Stimulus
Thought (Cognitive Label)
(Autonomic Nervous
System)
Emotion
You must first think about your situation before you can experience emotion.
Decide on appropriate emotion after the event occurs.
Example
You’re walking down a dark alley late at night and hear footsteps. If you do
not recognize the person, you might start to feel scared at the same time as
your heart rate starts to increase.
Two Routes to Emotion
• Zajonc and LeDoux emphasize that
some emotions are immediate, without
conscious appraisal. Linked to implicit
memory.
– Fast response system = the pathway
runs from the eye or ear via the
thalamus to the amygdala
– People can develop an emotional
preference for visual stimuli to
which they have been unknowingly
exposed
• Lazarus, Schachter, and Singer
emphasize that conscious appraisal also
determines emotions. Linked to explicit
memory.
– Slow response system = cerebral
cortex interprets events and
associates them with memories.
EX: In the forest, we jump
at the sound of rustling
leaves nearby, leaving the
cortex to decide later
whether the sound was
made by a predator or just
the wind.
Two Routes to Emotion
Emotions are felt directly through the amygdala (a) or through the
cortex (b) for analysis.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode4/video.html
Opponent Process Theory
Researchers
Richard Solomon and John Corbit
Definition
The experiencing of emotions disrupts the body's state of homeostasis.
Emotions occur in basically opposite pairs—pleasure-pain, depressionelation, fear-relief, and so forth—and oppose one another so that
homeostasis can once again be achieved. The theory suggests that the
experiencing of one emotion of a pair prompts the onset of the other
emotion (the opponent process) as well, which eventually reduces the
intensity of the first emotion and finally cancels it out.
Example
You’re walking down a dark alley late at night and hear footsteps. Your
primary emotion is fear; which triggers an opposing emotion of elation,
once you realize you are safe.
For example, although a rock climber may be terrified (an unpleasant
emotion) in several climbs of a steep cliff, eventually, the thrill of safely
reaching the top (a pleasant emotion) will cancel out that early fear. Some
psychologists use this theory to explain drug addiction. The pleasure
associated with taking an addictive drug is said to decrease over time
because an opponent process is operating to reduce the pleasure.
Consequently, more and more of the drug must be taken to achieve the
original euphoric state and to avoid the pain of withdrawal
Opponent Process Theory
Researchers
Richard Solomon and John Corbit
Definition
Emotions work in pairs and act in opposition, such as happiness-sadness,
fear-relief, pleasure-pain. When one is activated, the opponent emotion
is temporarily suppressed. However, as the primary emotion subsides,
the opposing emotion lingers awhile. With repetition, the primary
emotion becomes less intense but the secondary emotion becomes
stronger.
Sometimes these two conflicting emotions may be felt at the same time
as the second emotion intrudes before the first emotion wanes. The
result is a confusing combined experience of two emotions being felt at
the same time that normally are mutually exclusive. Thus we can feel
happy-sad, scared-relieved, love-hate, etc. This can be unpleasant but as
an experiential thrill it can also have a strangely enjoyable element (and
seems to be a basis of excitement).
Example
You’re walking down a dark alley late at night and hear footsteps. Your
primary emotion is fear; which triggers an opposing emotion of elation,
once you realize you are safe.
Thrill Seeking; Drug Use
Emotion and Performance
• Task performance is best
when physiological arousal is
moderate.
• As level of arousal increases,
quality of performance
decreases with task difficulty.
– Social Facilitation = with
easy or well learned tasks,
peak performance comes
with relatively high
arousal, which enhances
the dominant, usually
correct, response.
– Social Interference = with
more difficult or
unrehearsed tasks, the
optimal arousal is
somewhat lower.
EX: Basketball players shooting free
throws – a less automatic skill – may not
perform quite as well if a packed fieldhouse makes them hyperaroused
EX: Students who feel great anxiety
during exams perform more poorly than
those equally able but more confident
Physiological Differences
• Many emotions involve similar bodily
responses but have different underlying brain
circuits and stimulate different facial
expressions. EX: fear and joy will increase
heart rate, but stimulate different facial
expressions.
– Activity of the amygdala associated with
the emotion of fear. EX: rabbits with
damage to the amygdala will fail to react
with fear to a signal of impeding shock.
– Activity of the left prefrontal cortex, which
is rich in receptors for dopamine, is
associated with positive emotions
(happiness); while activity of the right
prefrontal cortex is associated with
negative emotions (disgust)
– Activity of the nucleus accumbens, a small
cluster of neurons in the limbic system, is
associated with the experience of pleasure.
Detecting and Computing Emotion
• Most people, even trained professionals like police officers, psychiatrists, and
judges, find it difficult to detect deceiving emotions.
• Polygraph measures physiological indexes of arousal.
– Inaccurate approximately 1/3 of the time.
– Feelings of anxiety, irritation and guilt all prompt similar physiological activity
• The most unambiguous nonverbal clue to our specific emotional state is provided
by our facial muscles.
Which of Paul Ekman’s smiles is genuine?
Hard-to-control facial muscles reveal signs of emotions you may be trying to
conceal. A feigned smile may continue for more than 4-5 seconds while a genuine
smile will have faded by then
Gender, Emotion, and Nonverbal Behavior
Women are much better at discerning nonverbal
emotions than men. When shown sad, happy, and
scary film clips women expressed more emotions
than men.
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Happiness
•
•
•
•
•
People who are happy perceive the world as being safer. They are able to make
decisions easily, are more cooperative, rate job applicants more favorably, and live
healthier, energized, and more satisfied lives.
Subjective well-being = the self-perceived feeling of happiness or satisfaction with life.
Research on new positive psychology is on the rise.
Our positive moods rise to a maximum within 6-7 hours after waking up. Negative
moods stay more or less the same throughout the day.
Relative Deprivation = the perception that we are relatively worse off than those we
compare ourselves with. Happiness is not only relative to our past, but also to our
comparisons with others
Many people in the West believe that if they were wealthier, they would be happier.
However, data suggests that they would only be happy temporarily. Wealth is like
health: Its utter absence can breed misery, yet having it is no guarantee of happiness.
– In affluent societies, people with more money are happier than people who
struggle for their basic needs.
– People in rich countries are happier than people in poor countries.
– A sudden rise in financial conditions makes people happy.
– However, people who live in poverty or in slums are also satisfied with their life.
– Students who value love more than money report higher life satisfaction.
Predictors of Happiness
Why are some people generally more happy than others?
Money does NOT buy Happiness
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Time Special on Happiness
• Pathways to Pleasure
• http://www.time.com/time/2005/happiness/graphic
s/
• Feeling Good in the US
• http://www.time.com/time/2005/happiness/graphic
s/poll.html
• Measure Your Happiness
• http://www.time.com/time/2005/happiness/graphic
s/quiz.html
http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/teaching-resources/
Stress
Stress is not merely a stimulus or a response. It is
a process by which we appraise and cope with
environmental threats and challenges.
Stress can be adaptive. In a fearful or stress- causing
situation, we can run away and save our lives. Stress can
be maladaptive. If it is prolonged (chronic stress), it
increases our risk of illness and health problems. 33
Stressor, Strain, Stress
The Stress Response System
Canon proposed that
the stress response
(fast) was a fight-orflight response marked
by the outpouring of
epinephrine and
norepinephrine from the
inner adrenal glands,
increasing heart and
respiration rates,
mobilizing sugar and
fat, and dulling pain.
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The Stress Response System
The hypothalamus and
the pituitary gland also
respond to stress (slow)
by triggering the outer
adrenal glands to
secrete glucocorticoids
(cortisol).
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General Adaptation Syndrome
According to Selye, a stress response to any kind of
stimulation is similar. The stressed individual goes
through three phases: Alarm, Resistance, Exhaustion.
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Cognitive Appraisal
Coping with Stress
Reducing stress by changing events that cause
stress or by changing how we react to stress is
called problem-focused coping.
Emotion-focused coping is when we cannot
change a stressful situation, and we respond by
attending to our own emotional needs.
Having a sense of control, an optimistic
explanatory style, and social support can reduce
stress and improve health.
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Perceived Control
Research with rats and humans indicates that
the absence of control over stressors is a
predictor of health problems.
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Explanatory Style
People with an optimistic (instead of
pessimistic) explanatory style tend to have more
control over stressors, cope better with stressful
events, have better moods, and have a stronger
immune system.
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Social Support
Bob Daemmrich/ Stock, Boston
Supportive family members, marriage partners,
and close friends help people cope with stress.
Their immune functioning calms the
cardiovascular system and lowers blood pressure.
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Biofeedback, Relaxation, and
Meditation
Biofeedback systems use
electronic devices to
inform people about their
physiological responses
and gives them the chance
to bring their response to a
healthier range.
Relaxation and meditation
have similar effects in
reducing tension and
anxiety.
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Health-Related Consequences
Stress can have a variety of health-related consequences.
Type A personality type is a term used for
competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally
aggressive, and anger-prone people. Type B
personality type refers to easygoing, relaxed people.
Type A personalities are more likely to develop
coronary heart disease.
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Intervening Factors
Investigators suggest there are three factors that
connect religious involvement and better health.
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